Forecast Calls For Change In Weather
‘In weather news today: A tornado that touched down in Hayden Lake five years ago is heading east. Fog will now envelope North Idaho and residents will experience a waning enthusiasm in weather-related phenomena.”
So might predict Cliff Harris, the only weatherman so far in “Who’s Who” for life. But in this case, Cliff is the departing tornado.
He leaves next month with his weather forecasting business for a new home in Vermont. A whirlwind of weather history, statistics and predictions, Cliff quickly became the Panhandle’s authority on Mother Nature. He shared his unrestrained love for weather through newspapers, radio and television - and North Idaho responded with enthusiasm.
But, “Ninety percent of my clients are east of the Rockies and they want early information,” Cliff says, punctuating his sentences with frantic waves of his arms. “I can’t keep burning the candle at both ends.”
He’s up by 4:30 a.m. and until midnight each day, funneling forecasts to farmers, industrialists and market speculators worldwide. He works in the basement office in his home seven days a week. A move east will give him three extra hours in a world that operates on Eastern Standard Time.
At 52, Cliff is fit and bursting with opinions, weather knowledge and world history trends. He does 100 push-ups every day. He scratches out so many pages of notes while he talks to farmers on the telephone that his fingers are gnarled with pressure bumps. The demand for his expertise fills him with energy and feeds his insatiable need to know more.
Still, he’s not nuts. Jericho, Vt., offers him North Idaho’s cool weather, 5,000-foot Mount Mansfield, fresh maple syrup and seven-hour nights. Will he miss North Idaho? Probably not.
“I’ve been all over the map,” he says. “Home is where the weather equipment is.”
Body language
Ever call your date an amoeba? In Christian Swenson’s case, you’d be right. He’s a performance artist from Seattle who devolves on stage from human to amoeba using his body, voice and imagination. When is the last time you saw something like that?
Catch Swenson at 7 p.m. Tuesday, at Prairie View Elementary in Post Falls or at 8 p.m. Saturday, at Sandpoint’s Panida Theater.
Action figures
Josh Whitford, Josh Sanders and Matt Studer snapped to action when they heard that Clayton Smith, a Borah Elementary third-grader, is undergoing radiation for a brain tumor. The three Sorensen Elementary fifthgraders decided to hold a raffle to help Clayton’s family travel back and forth to Spokane’s Deaconess Medical Center.
Coeur d’Alene businesses donated prizes and the boys started selling their $1 tickets last week. After they sell 500, they’ll draw for prizes. Who said kids think only of themselves? Call Josh Whitford at 667-8085 for tickets.
Burger bucks
Mike and Ed Hatter’s Burger King high school challenge netted Lake City High $2,068 last week.
For two months, customers of the Coeur d’Alene restaurant stuffed their meal receipts in boxes bearing the name of their favorite Kootenai County high school.
Mike and Ed donated $1,000 plus 10 percent of the total on the receipts to the winning school’s student council.
Makes me want a burger …
Jeans for beans
Remember the Sandpoint High cross country team’s drive for used jeans?
The team collected 1,000 pairs and will sell most of them 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the school for $1 to $3 a pair. Hard to beat the price.
What unique fund-raiser have you attended? Share the details with Cynthia Taggart, “Close to Home,” 608 Northwest Blvd., Suite 200, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, 83814; fax it to 765-7149; or call 765-7128.